Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Technology and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.21%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.96%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which rose 0.78% or 0.37 points to trade at 47.60 at the close. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) added 0.63% or 0.45 points to end at 71.93 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was up 0.10% or 0.08 points to 81.34 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which lost 5.15% or 6.17 points to trade at 113.55 in late trade. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) declined 2.70% or 3.00 points to end at 108.00 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 2.64% or 2.12 points to 78.04.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) which rose 4.88% to 55.86, Google Inc C (NASDAQ:GOOG) which was up 4.27% to settle at 660.78 and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) which gained 4.10% to close at 690.30.
The worst performers were Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which was down 12.27% to 10.22 in late trade, Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) which lost 6.85% to settle at 21.34 and CF Industries Holdings Inc (NYSE:CF) which was down 6.04% to 57.27 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Forward Industries Inc (NASDAQ:FORD) which rose 161.30% to 1.700, FreeSeas Inc (NASDAQ:FREE) which was up 47.53% to settle at 0.695 and Vertex Energy Inc (NASDAQ:VTNR) which gained 37.64% to close at 2.450.
The worst performers were World Acceptance Corporation (NASDAQ:WRLD) which was down 34.36% to 34.00 in late trade, Hercules Offshore Inc (NASDAQ:HERO) which lost 32.22% to settle at 0.061 and Avid Technology Inc (NASDAQ:AVID) which was down 28.95% to 8.54 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1685 to 777 and 5 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1799 fell and 765 advanced, while 2 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 11.77% to 13.67.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.34% or 3.80 to $1107.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.22% or 0.10 to hit $43.22 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.11% or 0.06 to trade at $49.81 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.22% to 1.1043, while USD/JPY rose 0.45% to 125.19.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.01% at 97.23.